The best way to prepare for a night out with a Shakespearean tragedy is to do a bit of reading up in the afternoon, eat a light supper - perhaps Welsh rarebit - and then arrive early to do some stretching exercises in the foyer before curtain-up.

I'm an armchair kind of guy, especially when it's raining, which it always is and always will be.

It was Julie Burchill who decreed that, beyond a certain age, a man should not be seen in a leather jacket.

Reading the play at home, however fulfilling, can never be the vivacious experience that Shakespeare intended.

My eyebrows could do with a trim.

If you want to be happy for a short time, get drunk happy for a long time, fall in love; happy forever, take up gardening.

Every generation of children has its private hero.